Loser Nation

Good stuff from William Pfaff, whom we remember from those long ago days when the Chicago Times/L.A. Tribune wasn't as bad. The '80s, if not the late '70s. But the brain trust at First & Spring would rather have Johan [sic] Goldberg gracing their pages, although Mr. Pfaff is also a Chicago Tribune columnist.

Here's a pull, now read the rest.

[The United Snakes] also possesses by far the largest armed forces on Earth, which demand from a profoundly indebted nation still more sophisticated equipment and better recruits, since the Americans they are now enlisting, by standard U.S. military criteria of IQ and level of education, come from the bottom of the barrel of eligible men and women, so that it has become increasingly necessary to recruit from immigrant and foreign populations.

The paradox that is seldom discussed in politics or the press is that this country, with total military resources equal to those of all the rest of the world combined, wages wars that consistently turn out badly, leaving American enemies in power. I am considered unpatriotic for bringing this up; however, other countries have noticed.

Since the Korean War (a draw, plus a cease-fire that remains dangerously unresolved) and the Vietnam War (away from which the unsuccessful U.S. tiptoed, while continuing to issue empty threats which had no public backing), the U.S. has won wars only against former CIA “asset” Col. Manuel Noriega of Panama, a Cuban airport construction crew on Grenada, and Saddam Hussein, thereby delivering Iraq into the hands of Iran.

An exceptional nation, aren't "we?"